Don’t want to take benefit of rift in MQM-P: Kamal

KARACHI - Pak Sarzameen Party Chief Mustafa Kamal said on Monday that he doesn’t want to take benefit from Muttahida Quami Movement’s internal conflict.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Kamal once again lashed out at MQM-P, accusing the party of stigmatising the Mohajirs by “spilling the blood” of innocent people in the name of politics.

Stepping into the recent breach between two groups within the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Mustafa Kamal on Monday said the notion that the Mohajir community is perennially associated with MQM-P has now been dispelled because the community has an alternate option in the form of his Pak Sarzameen Party.

The PSP chief said that keeping in view the recent situation of the city, he did not present any stance on it so that people don’t assume the PSP is trying to seek benefit from the current circumstances.

The PSP chief said that he will not go back to the way he came from. He said that he left behind high party ranks and talked for the rights of people. Kamal while addressing the mqm workers said that he always worked for the rights of Muhajirs.

Kamal said that he will not revert, adding that no harm will come to any leader but innocent blood gets spilled.

The PSP chief said that he cannot start politics of blood and fire and wants to create ease for the supporters. “I am not here to lay a bed of thorns but to remove obstacles from your path,” he said.

The PSP chief’s statement comes in the wake of infighting in the MQM-P that has resulted in the dissolution of the party’s coordination committee at the hands of party chief Farooq Sattar.

Last week, a meeting of the coordination committee had been convened at the MQM-P’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, where Dr Sattar had an altercation with senior leader Amir Khan when the latter, along with others, refused to endorse the former’s proposal to field Tessori as a candidate on one of the Senate general seats.

Sources said that majority of the participants seconded Khan’s views, upon which Dr Sattar boycotted the meeting and left for his PIB Colony residence in a huff. He subsequently summoned all party members, excluding the coordination committee members, to his PIB Colony home.

Most MQM-P leaders had stayed put at the Bahadurabad headquarters, however, where senior leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui spoke to the media to say that the party had decided to nominate Nasreen Jalil (on first priority), followed by Dr Farogh Nasim, Aminul Haq, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Amir Khan and Tessori for six Senate seats.

The rift deepened after both factions submitted nominations of separate candidates for the upcoming Senate elections. Both sides still appealed to the other to come to a compromise. However, matters got worse on Sunday when the coordination committee moved to remove Sattar from the convener’s position. This led Sattar to dissolve the committee and call for fresh intra-party elections on February 17.